For 25 years, the woman behind Renee's Garden has cultivated the notion that growing plants from seed is easier than you might think

More than 25 years ago, when arugula and kale were considered exotic, she took out a mortgage on her Felton home and borrowed some money from friends and family to help plant a small mail-order seed business. Over the years the company grew and grew, blossoming into Renee's Garden, a seed company that now sells about 2.5 million packets of seeds annually to home gardeners and 1,500 garden centers across the United States and Canada.

"My motivation was you couldn't buy them anywhere else," Shepherd said. "I just figured there was a real need for really great-tasting varieties for home gardens."

While still considered a small-scale seed company, Renee's Garden now offers more than 400 varieties of vegetable, herb and flower seeds that Shepherd buys worldwide, mostly from family-run companies, she said. She tests out every variety in the half-acre trial garden on her Felton property, and stands behind every seed she sells. Her No. 1 goal is for home gardeners to succeed, but if they encounter issues, they can shoot an email or phone call off to Shepherd's horticultural adviser, Beth Benjamin, who will be sure to get to the root of any and all problems.

"I think everyone can be successful and if you're not we'll help you," Shepherd said.

Not only are the seeds tested in Santa Cruz County, they're grown in trial gardens in Vermont, Florida and Washington to ensure they can grow in a variety of climates. The company's seeds, meanwhile, are sold through garden centers and other retailers throughout the U.S. and Canada, and gardeners can buy directly from her website.

An Ohio native, Shepherd picked up gardening in her 20s after moving to Santa Cruz, where she taught environmental studies at UC Santa Cruz. She found satisfaction and meaning in planting a hard seed in the ground, watering it and watching it mature into something she could use to create delicious dishes in her kitchen. The process of growing a garden from seed connects people to something larger, she said.

"It's a way of stewarding nature and understanding it in a new way," she said.

Shepherd likes to keep her own garden stocked with salad greens, Asian veggies, tomatoes, eggplant and sweet peas -- for their scent and beauty. When she's ready to think about dinner, she'll take a walk through her garden to see what looks good.

"We really eat out of the garden," she said.

Tomatoes, lettuces and fragrant flowers are among the company's top-selling seeds, and Shepherd has found that Santa Cruz gardeners are interested in growing food from all over the world, then experimenting with dishes. Peppers, for example, are native to South America, she said, but are now found in everything from Thai to Italian cuisine.

"It's a way to tap into the diversity of the world but in a very personal way," she said. "You still have to grow them all."

Nellie Boonman, a marketing assistant at Renee's Garden, said Shepherd wants to share her love of gardening and make the experience of growing from seed as rich as possible for home gardeners. The company's comprehensive website, www.reneesgarden.com, is chock-full of information, including "how-to" articles, gardening tips and recipes. It also includes packet information for each seed variety. Additional information can also be found at www.reneescommunitygarden.com, a user-powered community to which the horticultural adviser contributes.

"It's as much a matter of business as it is about education," Boonman said.

The 24-year-old Chicago native became an intern with the company in 2009, but joining Shepherd's eight-person team was no coincidence. In the early 1980s, Shepherd would host soccer games with international students from UCSC in the horse pasture on her Felton property. One day a young man named Cees Boonman, Nellie Boonman's father, suggested Shepherd look into the seed business. He told her that in Europe, gardeners grew for taste, not just food. That advice would change Shepherd's life forever.

"It's kind of coming full circle," Nellie Boonman said.

The horse pasture that once served as a soccer field is now the trial garden and a classroom for those like Nellie Boonman, who try to learn all they can from Shepherd.

"I learned how to garden through Renee's instruction," she said, adding that Shepherd is also an accomplished cook.

She's learned what does and doesn't work through trial and error. For example, it's best not to attempt to transfer radishes. Shepherd explains how to grow each plant on the back of each packet -- all seeds sell for $2.79 or $2.99 per packet -- and Boonman suggests every gardener stick to the instructions.

"Read the packet back completely," she said. "She's incredibly clear."

Benjamin, the company's horticultural adviser, has worked with Shepherd since the company was a catalog business. She said the website has enabled the business to grow and reach people all over the planet.

Benjamin, the founder of Camp Joy, said she and Shepherd are driven to help people succeed with their seeds.

"We want people to do well with them and part of that's education," she said.

As horticultural adviser, Benjamin responds to questions that customers pose, ranging in topic from germination issues to which flowers create the most fragrant garden.

"It's great," she said. "It's not canned. It really is me."

Now living in Southern California, Benjamin believes planting seeds -- none of the company's seeds are treated or genetically modified -- and watching them grow is a tradition that's been lost over the years and one that communities can benefit from.

"Partly because it's so fun and partly because it's something the world has lost and partly because the world needs it," she said.

Gardening season is now under way and extends into summer, and Shepherd suggests gardeners continue planting for the next few months so that they'll have vegetables through the winter.

"See what you like to eat best and plant that," she said.

The company donates seeds to local causes, including homeless and school gardens, as well as international communities such as mothers in Uganda living with HIV/AIDS. Shepherd said the goal is to provide food and empowerment to these communities.

"Those connections make me work as hard as I do," she said. "It's really easy to do good."

For Shepherd, seeds are a periscope into different cultures, traditions and cuisines. They each have a history and story behind them, she said. By planting a seed and helping it grow, she believes people are tapping into a great joy in life.

"Gardening's a lot of fun, it doesn't cost a lot to do and it's always available," she said. "It gives extra dimension and meaning to every day."

AT A GLANCE

Tips from a

seed-gowing pro

Beth Benjamin, founder of Camp Joy and horticultural adviser for Renee's Garden, has some tips on growing a gorgeous garden from seeds:

Prepare your soil before planting by watering, digging and fertilizing.'You need to think about building the soil instead of extracting from it,' she said.

Read the packet backs. This will provide important information on when and how to plant the seeds.

Ask around. Talk with other gardeners in your immediate area. There are numerous microclimates in Santa Cruz County, so check to see what has worked, and what hasn't, in your neighborhood. 'You want to pay attention to what other people are doing,' she said. 'See what your neighbors are doing.'

Cut yourself some slack. You can pick up a packet of seeds for less than $3, so keep trying until you succeed. 'Never think you failed. ... Don't give up. Don't assume it's you.'